New Ulm weekly review., 1887-08-17
OVER 4 a e CATSkILLS.I

| kle S1ept-A MOuntaineeros Mar
rativcs OF Irvtng's Famous Legend.
That great family of mountains call
ed the Alleghanies has a home 160
miles wide and 1900 long. It reaches
from the eastern valley of ST. Law
renee river to the north line Of Alaba-
ma It is composed of a series Of lofty
land waves with now and thena bill
low tossed into mountain peaks. The
Catskills are one county Of this great
evolution Of rock and fire.
They stand ten or twelve miles from
the Hudson river, these toy Alps OF the
Allegghanies, for they are distinguished
from the greater part of the mighty
range to which they belong by their
Swiss-like peaks and dizzy cliffs.
1t was for while thought that these
mountains contained large measures of
coal but this was found to be a,mistake,
and they became a gold mine filed
with precious metal for the intellect
and the heart, spangled with dreams
and legends, interspersed with natural
landscape gardens and rich with OBJ
servatories, from which can be seen the
emerald jeWelry of several different
| states.
/ AS our Hudson river craft came yes
lSterdav, in sight of the blue ranges that
smiled at us a few miles in the distance
1T was evident that there was trouble in
the Catskills. The ghosts of the Dutch
tenpin- players who walk through every
Visitors fancy were having one. of their
most brilliant games and making
ten-strike every half minute The tops
| OF the mountains were being lombard
ed with shafts of fire. Fleet after fleet
of blue-flagged thunder-clouds came
! sailing toward us out of the western
| country. A wall of white fell in sec
ond between us and the mystery land
| for which we were bound When we
landed at Catskill it was in a flying
lake of showers, and we were glad that
the old stage line of twelve miles and
few years ago had been presented to
the past and new stage line establish
ed, composed Of glistening iron steeds
and comfortable railroad coaches. Safe
and dry and peering between gems of
raindrops upon the car-windows, we
| rumbled through and out OF the modern
villege of Catskill. We passed in the
distance the little Dutch hamlet of
Leeds, which Young America. called
ancient because it is two hundred
years old. We left upon our right a
! manor house that is haunted by ghost
| with halter about his neck. We eau ght
glimpses of Catskill creek, sitting it's
liquid silver down over the rocks, and
at last halted at a Wayside roilroad de-
| pot and found horse coaches waiting to
| climb with us four miles and :, half up
| the mountain.
| Here is a toll-gate-for perpendicu-
lar turnpikes are not a product of ma
ture, and it costs money to build them.
The old valley mountaineer who guards
the pass takes 50 cents from the driver
Of a team and cents from any passen-
gea who may have use for few pods
| well filled with peanut kernels. He is,
also, he says, '.Goin' to put in a few
soft drinks for them that wants 'em,
this summer" He is as gray as one of
the mountain rocks, and, suppose, as
abstemious, for he claims to be life
long foe to the liquid that drugged and
immortalized the famous Van Wrinkle.
Having passed safely through this
portal, our coach horses began there
weary climb.
A mile and half up the road we
came to a frame building two and
half stories tall. By the side of it was
little hut of a saloon. "Whatis thisp'
we asked of the driver.
Grip House." said the driver, pre-
pairing to give the eager colonel a
drink. ..Place where Rip Van Winkle
slept for twenty years. You'll see the
rock he slep' on-just up back O the
house thar.
the proprietor of the establishment
now came to the door, and looked so
full of information concerning the af-
fair that am not ashamed to say that
went down the next morning on pur-
pose to ask him about it. He is dark
man. with large, strong mustache, and
a deep, convincing voice. He was al
| ready engaged in conversation with a
sad looking man from New Jersey, and
/ had nothing to do but sip a 15-cent
glass of lemonade and listen.
Eyer see,' the proprietor was saw
| ing, s.this Van Winkle used to live
down here to CaIskill. He was con-
sid BILE on the hunt, an he come up
that valley down there one day an met
| a lot O Dutch fairies, with whisky kegs.
| an offered to help 'em ben' Of a kind
disposition to everybody but his own
folks-an' they give him a drink, an
he elm up on to that rock an slep'
| there twenty year in one nap. Fore
! he turned in he hitched his doro. te, that
tree thar. An. the tree it growed an
| it growed, an when he woke up there
was nothin' left O. the dorg but a
bunch O bones an string. An there s
/ the bones now. There were certainly
some bones hanging to the branches Of
a tree, some ten or fifteen feet high,
! where no one could reach thena-
But excuse me. sir, = said the sad
looking man from New Jersey, drawing
an opera-glass from his pocket, .'but-
II